Site Visit to the Clean Water Tower

On Sunday morning 23/02/2014, LIN organized a site visit to the clean water tower project in Long Thuan, Long An. The Clean Water Tower project was proposed by the winner of Ceporer Hoc Mon (which received a grant of 150 million VND by winning first place during the Narrow The Gap Community Event 2013: Focus on Children. When in operation, the water tower will benefit 160 children, as well as 86 household members here. Click here to watch the video introducing the project and why it was needed.

After a two hour trip from HCMC to Long An, guests from Ceporer Hoc Mon, Hoi Huynh De and donor representatives, including ILA Vietnam, HSBC Bank, Unilever and LIN came to UBND Long Thuan, where they traveled to a small station to see the households living deep inside the water polluted area that are now benefitting from this project.

Here, the guests were shown the clean water that is being brought to various households by mounting plastic pipes along roads and bridges.

The clean water has to have a strong flow and relative stability to be able to provide for all of the faraway households.

One concern that was raised by members of the project team was that the pipes transporting the clean water are exposed to the elements. Team members of this project are in discussions to find a solution or risk management strategy.

All the guests got to meet with Mr. Pho, a farmer who benefits from the project. Mr. Pho said “I usually work far away and come home late at night. My family is very happy to have accessible clean water; instead of using the polluted water or waiting for the rain from the sky to fill up the tanks. Another convenient thing is that we can now access clean water from a pipe right by our house, which saves us time from having to go get water.”

After visiting several households, the group returned to the water tower to join the celebration of the inauguration with government representatives, local unions, civilians and young children there. You could see the excitement and joy on the faces of children and families from the neighborhood who came to celebrate and who will benefit from the clean water.

Mr. Nam, the land owner who voluntarily donated part of his land to build the clean water tower for the elderly and children, alike. He said “My house and the households around here were very distressed with working to find clean water. We had proposed numerous times to the Committee to support us with towers that could provide clean water for the people, but had never received a satisfactory answer. Because of this, when I heard of the plan to raise funds to provide Clean Water for everyone around here, I happily volunteered to donate my land to support the Clean Water Tower project for everyone around here to have accessible water. I’d like to thank the Narrow the Gap Community for funding and all the sponsors that came to Long Thuan, one of the poor communities in Long An.”

Along with representatives from mass organizations, Mr. Pham Truong Son Pho –deputy director of LIN Center for Community Development and donor representatives, [cutting the ribbon], and officially putting clean water into operation around Long Thuan.

From now on, 160 young children and 86 households will have access to clean water, a basic human need.

“Representing more than 300 sponsors and supporters of the Narrow the Gap Community Fund 2013 for children, I am delighted to be joining the inauguration Clean Water Tower project today. The hard work to find funding for the clean water tower project iscomplete. Now, the job is to maintain, preserve and sustain the clean water tower and pipeline. It is great that the locals haveestablished a project management committee to help sustain the project. I hope that with the success of this project, similar projects can be replicated in other towns with similar concerns for clean water.” – Mr Pham Truong Son.